Portsmouth police to focus on disorderly bar patrons this summer

PORTSMOUTH — Deputy Police Chief Corey MacDonald said Tuesday that police are planning to ramp up enforcement efforts in the downtown this summer, concentrating on disorderly bar patrons who become an annoyance to local residents and business owners.

PORTSMOUTH — Deputy Police Chief Corey MacDonald said Tuesday that police are planning to ramp up enforcement efforts in the downtown this summer, concentrating on disorderly bar patrons who become an annoyance to local residents and business owners.

"We are going to tackle the quality-of-life issues," MacDonald said. "We'll look at disorderly conduct in public, such as people kicking over trash cans. Our approach will be to charge people with those offenses."

The assertion that police will focus their resources on the downtown this summer came after what MacDonald said was a productive meeting at the police station Monday night between law enforcement and professionals in the downtown hospitality industry.

"We had a really good turnout," he said. "We had a lot of restaurant and bar owners, managers and bar staff."

Topics of discussion during the meeting ranged from how police can be helpful to those in the hospitality industry and vice versa, according to MacDonald.

One issue mentioned by bar owners at Monday's meeting involved limited transportation options for patrons when bars close, MacDonald said. Bar owners said the lack of available transportation can lead to large crowds of people downtown with nowhere to go, which MacDonald said can prove to be problematic.

He said the main focus Monday night was for the Police Department to relay its enforcement goals going into the summer.

"We want to tackle the things that are really annoying, things that are especially annoying to residents and business owners in that area of town," he said.

MacDonald said police will also concentrate on issues of over-service of alcohol and preventing people who are intoxicated from loitering in downtown establishments.

"We're not looking to duplicate liquor enforcement, but we'll be looking to address the issues that are sometimes the root causes of the problems we are having," he said.